For my undergrad work, I took a bunch of religious courses. I wrote this sometime ago. I recently found it and thought it would be an interesting post because I believe it still applies.
One of the most important social problems of today is being alone in a crowded room. Since the 1970’s technology has dramatically changed. We live in the very beginning of the information age. Changes in our society have connected us to information and disconnected us to humanity. Children overall are unhealthy because they are not out playing. Men and women are spending more time with their virtual friends then they are with each other. We spend more money on high power, high quality technologies then we spend on people. We pressure our children and ourselves with the consumption of data. Our technological breakthroughs are moving so fast it is difficult for even the most flexible and intelligent people to keep up with it. This problem will not stop or be solved any time soon because we don’t even naturally recognize it as a problem. This has directly impacted my life due to the nature of my job. I work for a school division as a computer support specialist and logistics coordinator. I see first hand how technology is implemented in our schools. I work with and teach educators how to use technology. Most of our teachers (even the young ones) are in the dark ages. They have a hard time learning how to use technology and keep up with the lesson plans. Our kids are ahead of the educators, which puts the educators in an awkward position.
People have come to worship technology. When I was a child I would look at a book and assume that the information that I read was true. For many years I looked at the words without thinking about who was behind them. Behind my words I am faceless, you might choose to believe or disbelieve what I say. The truth is that you will have to have faith that what I say is true. I actively choose to question what and who is behind the words in books. This issue has manifested itself in technology. The internet is looked at as a wealth of knowledge. You can find the answers to almost any question you have. What about G-d? Can you find the answers on the internet using technology to find G-d? Absolutely, there are many people in this world who have figured out ways to manipulate others using this venue. If it is written, then it must be true. Houselander wrote about subtle temptations that a prosperous world never ceases to propose to the individual. How true that is. First the television found its way into almost every home. We had started to forget about the simple things in life. Spending time with our children; participating in activities with our families. We became disconnected as a society from the ones we love. The television became the babysitter and the educator. Television would fill our minds with false hope, great love and great sadness. When Carol O’Conner (Archie Bunker) I cried and felt that I had lost someone I knew. I lost a character of someone’s imagination. Fast forward from the age of television to the age of the internet. We can strike people deeper then we had ever imagined using the fundamental letters of our alphabet. Our words that people believe are flashed before us at speeds never before seen. We sit crouched over our keyboards before the false G-d of knowledge. We embrace this false electronic mass and we believe what we read. I can tell you that I am a little girl only 15 years old. You have no idea who I am. You will believe me because you are reading these words. You have no way to dispute what I am saying. I could tell you that I have seen the face of G-d and that he has told me to share my experience with you. Of course you must send me a dollar so that I may spread the word all throughout the world. You will be better for your donation and I will bless you as the Pontiff would bless you. You know this to be true because I am telling you so. You have read this with your own eyes and you will believe in me and what I say.
People cannot rise up against social horrors because as a group people are sheep. I speak to you one to one. You and I sit across the table from each other and I say to you “I am great, you do not know my greatness but I am great.” You would probably think I was a nut case. The average man or woman would think that something is wrong with me. I am sitting in a group of three to five people and I say the same thing, everyone has a chance to respond and speak their minds. On average they would dispute my greatness and argue that I am no greater than they are. We are all great, we are all individuals, and we are all unique just like everyone else. Put me before thousands and thousands of people, your television. “I am great, you do not know my greatness but I am telling you I am great.” There are many that would follow me and ask me the questions that plague them. I could answer them all with my visions. I have sight beyond sight because I can look deep within myself and answer the questions that I do not have an answer to. I can tell you what you want to hear. This is done all the time, we all allow it. I am as guilty as you are. We are unwilling to challenge our social horrors because we are all children playing in the big playground. We are children for as long as we live. That is the answer to the unwillingness. We might be educated with information that we have chosen to generate and consume but we still know nothing about what we really are. We might have such faith, such passion, that we choose to kill or die for our unknown. We consistently overlook our simplicities and we bathe in our complexity. How could we address issues in such madness and confusion? I submit to you that we cannot address social horrors because we cannot face or deal with what we are.
The Cohenization Project 